Guide to Creating A Niche Website

Have You Heard of Duncan Carver?

Duncan Carver is one of those niche marketers who just disappears off on holiday for almost a year… because he can!
He is also famous for having created probably the best free link manager script
So Duncan is now back and proving that once you understand how to research a niche, and create a product to sell to that niche, the world really is your oyster.

Ozzie: Google

Microsoft can admit when it’s wrong. Well, not so much wrong as behind the curve, and the admission was made at a conference, instead of in any sort of black-and-white press release. Still, Ray Ozzie, the company’s chief software architect, turned a few heads when he admitted that Google’s success in advertising had caught Microsoft by surprise.

IBM, Google Partner

IBM and Google have partnered to bring Google Gadgets to WebSphere Portal allowing users to create, customize and use Internet applications directly within the portal. In April, IBM will release a version of WebSphere Portal that will allow users to search an Internet directory of Google Gadgets that will operate on IBM’s software.

Users will be able to select from around 4,000 Google Gadgets such as language translators, package delivery tracking, Wikipedia information and YouTube postings. These features can be accessed through a company’s portal.

Google Makes Sales Call To Federal Government

When you consider that Google’s net income in 2006 was well over $3 billion, it becomes apparent that individual customers don’t matter much to the company’s overall business. Google may be trying to change that, however: yesterday and today, it’s holding a special sales meeting with “nearly 200 federal contractors, engineers and uniformed military members.”

YouTube Gives MySpace, TV Networks A Thumpin’

It’s been nothing but up for YouTube lately, a hill steep enough to send a few key competitors tumbling backwards. MySpace added a video component? Wouldn’t know it by recent stats. Viacom copyright lawyers strip-searching everybody? So, what? Traffic’s never been better.

According to Compete.com, YouTube controls a 43.3 share of the online video market in January, up from 41.1 percent in December. That translates to 31.7 million unique visitors, up two million in one month. Meanwhile, MySpace Video is down by nearly the same amounts.

Why Your Vlog or Podcast Might Fail

I don’t want to sound like an old, crotchety, cynical, email-will-never-overtake-fax-machine dinosaur but I don’t think podcasts or video blogs are all they’re cracked up to be.

I’m the first to admit that I may be way off the mark here, because this is a somewhat counter-intuitive argument. The newer media of internet videos and podcasts seem like the next logical evolution of the written word, but think again. For the near future at least text-based information still has distinct advantages over video and voice.

Back To Top